Lewiston Man Dead on Train

 

Uncle Peg’s Chronicles

October 27, 2022

“Lewiston Man Dead on Train”

Number of pages in Outline Descendant Report: 126 (up from 121 last chronicle)

Number of pages in basic Descendant Report: 190 (up from 181 last chronicle)

 

Francis Holmes is # 1. I am now # 294. # 286, where I was last week, is now Raymond Gayle MacKillop.

Matthew Williams, Jane William’s grandson, is last at # 415, up from # 402, and his son is # ii.

#402 is now Elizabeth McCargo.

This should change weekly, if I’m doing my job.

 

 

Simon’s new perch.

Fed the dog, made my coffee, and opened my email early Sunday morning the 16th. I received a blessing on a drizzly grey day. Several of you often send me a note after you read my weekly chronicle, and I am so grateful. This day, I heard from someone new. Someone I knew about, yes, but not someone I had met before, either in real life or virtual. I won’t share her whole email, just the gist of it. She identified herself, said that her mother forwards her my weekly email (thanks, Mom), and she enjoys reading them. She told me of her career and where it took her, and her interest in family history. And this – Thank you for all that you do to document and enrich everyone's family history stories - an unbelievable commitment and dedication! ~ Jennifer.

 All of your comments warm my heart and renew my passion, making it easier to research and write, chase our elusive ancestors, and tell their stories.

~

Well, I took a tentative step in producing our family history and genealogy book in Family Tree Maker, as I compiled a sample pdf copy and sent it off to a few family genealogists. This is a bit of a tree: the lives of three descendants of Daniel and Charlotte Hoyt Holmes who settled for a short or a long time or summer stays in Lincoln, Maine: Sarah Louise Holmes and Robert Roy Ballantyne; William Nelson Holmes and Anna Columbia Heath; and Caroline Maria Holmes and Charles Alfred Steeves. It’s rough – but it is a sort of template of what is to come eventually. This is all part of “A Colossal Collection of Cousins,” so I don’t mind moving about in the project. Plus, I determined earlier that, if ever I find myself unable to complete CCC, I should at least have the genealogy done.

 I’m hoping the few genealogists I have chosen will give me their honest feedback so I can proceed. If they like it, I’ll be after more of you to help me with your family. Some of you have helped in the past, but still, new information always comes up.

 This contains the names of a few living people, perhaps of my generation – those of us who are - well – mature in years. Is that a kind way to say it? I’ll need permission from each one of them to include them, for privacy reasons. Without permission, I’ll be temporarily dropping them from the tree (easily done, as long as I don’t forget to add them back in), but if most people object, I’ll drop a generation. No littles will appear in this tree that will go to an archive, but they will probably appear eventually in a copy for family members. If there are objections, they will appear in my copy only. That’s off in the future, anyway.

 There are only 30 pages in my sample book, which of course will change.

~

So, as I consider what I have to do and redo and revise for this booklet, I decided to start revising the Robert Ballantyne family. I have the basics in my tree but need to add details and sources, as they change with time.

 Louisa Ballantyne was the daughter of Daniel and Charlotte Holmes, and married Robert R Ballantyne.

 The children of Robert and Louisa Ballantyne:

 

Daniel   1867 – 1924

Grace    1868 – 1941

Winifred 1870 – 1931

Alice      1873 – 1937

Kingsley 1876 – 1944

Ellwood  1879 – 1899

Frank      1882 – 1958

Edith      1887 - 1897

 

(Their causes of death are an interesting study as well.)

 I came upon my Alice Ballantyne conundrum again – I remember it from my research of long ago, when I was working on the three Ballantyne sisters who lived together in Iowa and Idaho, together most of the time, with their brother Frank living with them by times and/or close by. I’m sure Paula will remember: Grace, Winifred, and Alice.

 What is important to know is that a death certificate is only a primary source for the death - not for the birth and the details before the death. Generally, it turns out to be correct, but not always. It’s only as good as the memory of the informant. Upon the death of Alice, sister Grace gave the wrong information to the recording secretary. She gave Alice’s birth date as November 8, 1878; place of birth, Brooklyn, Iowa. My hypothesis is that Alice was born in November, 1873, as recorded on the census of 1900.

 It is rare that I would choose a census date over a date on a death certificate, but you have to follow the entire family throughout their lives to note a discrepancy like this. Grace, also the informant on Winifred’s death certificate, gave a birth date for Winifred that was off by six years. Why would a lawyer do this? Grace was one of the first few female lawyers I the US.

 What were the ramifications of this/these errors? The sources available to on-line genealogists are wrong. What I can find for Alice’s death are the Idaho, US, Death Index; the Idaho, US, Death Records (actual record), and Find A Grave # 71713827 are all wrong. Will I lose sleep over this? Naw. It just throws the family picture off kilter, and causes me misgivings about Grace. Five years off for her sister Alice and six years off for Winifred, when they were all born one right after and lived together nearly all of their lives. I looked at Grace’s certificate of death. Grace died four years after Alice – but her cause of death and contributing health issues were all heart related; no mention of dementia.

 At about the same time and place, brother Frank had married the widow Alice Dorothy Matthews Mitchell as his second wife – another Alice Ballantyne, born, according to her death record, on October 6, 1878. This was close to the date of birth that Grace gave to Alice. They couple married in 1934, and Alice died of cancer in 1939 – even though Find A Grave says she died on 28 November, 1938. In this case, the death record is a primary source, so I will use the death record over Find A Grave.

 Another young Alice Ballantyne married A. Lawrence Costello on August 8, 1926. Both Alice and Lawrence were born c 1905, according to their marriage records. The other two Alice Ballantynes were long dead by this time. However . . .

 If you have a copy of the family history compiled by our ancestors in the late 1920s, it states that Alice Ballantyne (daughter of Robert and Louisa), married Lawrence Costello. I mentioned to Fen that the historians had made an error there and he said “hmmmmm.” I think he had removed his shingle from the wall by that time. I am looking at other Ballantyne relatives in the Iowa/Idaho area for the parents of Alice Ballantyne Costello. Information is pretty sketchy.

 I have a bit more work to do on this, but I’m pretty sure that I have it correct by following the census records. Ann Marie, you may want to have a look at this and see if you agree with me.

 Most of the time, I don’t go into in depth study of people. I’d need a dozen more lifetimes. But, this goes to show how easily errors are made and carried on by not doing quality research. I wonder how many errors I have made.

 ~

 Many years ago, Paula and I worked on his son, Norman Zell Ballantyne, son of the aforementioned Frank. . We couldn’t find out much about him, but were puzzled why he died so young. Paula, remember the radio tubes and how we studied them? The years go by, and more stuff shows up. I had sent away to the archives in Seattle, where Norman was declared dead, and after paying the fee, received a copy of his death certificate. It said, under cause of death, died on a train, probably a heart problem. (That is paraphrased). Well, Paula and anyone else interested, here is his notice of death. It makes me sad. It only shows up in the email, so I will transcribe it.

LEWISTON MAN DEAD ON TRAIN

Lewiston, Idaho, Sept. 13 – A Lewiston man, who left here Thursday afternoon in apparent good health, was found dead in his train compartment when it arrived in Seattle. The King county coroner’s office said the man, Norman Z. Ballantyne, 31, is believed to have died of natural causes.

Ballantyne left Lewiston Thursday to return to Japan where he has been employed for the last six years as a radio technician under United States civil service. He had been spending a vacation leave here with his mother, Mrs. Aurie Mates (sic – should be Mapes).

He is survived by his mother, his father, Frank Ballantyne, Juliaetta, a brother, Austin Ballantyne, and a half-sister, Goldie Mates (sic), both of Lewiston.

The body is being returned here to the Vassar-Rawis funeral home, with funeral arrangements pending.

~

 I am recovering from surgery and doing lots of genealogy, as I’m not supposed to do strenuous work. I had a thyroidectomy – they removed the right side of my thyroid and a benign tumor which was living off of it. I can now work on my desktop computer for short periods of time, but for several days I had to work on my tablet. It seems like I raise my head to read on my desktop, so I only used it when necessary.

 As I review, I’m finding more details than I had before, like the obituary of Norman Zell Ballantyne, above. I’m learning how to make and print my “book,” which will actually be a binder for the Lincoln, Maine, Historical Society’s new research branch. I am grateful to Ann Marie Holmes, who researches much like I do. She puts lots of obituaries on there for me to snatch, as does Ian Boss, who does not know I snatch them. Someday I might tell him, but previously, he didn’t seem interested in my project.

 

 I think I need to make a to-do diary. I’m getting a bit overwhelmed with my projects, which are –

 

·           Minutes of the Southeastern Branch of the NBGS – six times a year.

·         Four more speakers for our meetings to be located.

·         Promise of seven articles for News and Notes – two done; five to go between now and May.

·         Promise of seven articles for Generations which are the same but added to as the articles for N & N – one done, the rest are seasonal.

·         Promise of genealogy of three members of the Daniel Holmes family for the Lincoln Historical Society – anticipated date of completion, the end of the year.

·         Poor old neglected CCC, although all these promises are part of CCC and therefore not time wasted.

·         Christmas newsletter to compile and edit, with your help.

·         One promised doily to complete, wash, block and deliver.

 

No more promises until the genealogy for the LHS is complete, at least.

 We are having a beautiful end of October – shirtsleeves weather. I take a daily walk and enjoy it. Soon enough, the snow will begin. However, one of my Facebook/actual friends posted yesterday that lupins are in bloom by the bridge to Riverview. I’m heading that way today, but unfortunately, cannot stop at that location for a photo. I’d get run over.

 I haven’t been out taking photos, so I went to the archives and chose one of the photos that will go in the Lincoln project, and most of you have seen it before. This is the William and Anna (Heath) Holmes family. It will be in black and white in the project. Hannah Jennett (Ryerson) Pinkham, aka Granny Pink as I recall, is Anna’s mother.

 

 

The Hell of my Auld Age

 

Uncle Peg’s Chronicles

October 13, 2022

“The Heall of my Auld Age”

Number of pages in Outline Descendant Report: 121 (up from 121 last chronicle)

Number of pages in basic Descendant Report: 181 (up from 181 last chronicle)

 

Francis Holmes is # 1. I am now # 286. # 286, where I was last week, is now Margaret Rose Holmes.

Matthew Williams, Jane William’s grandson, is last at # 402, up from # 398, and his son is # ii.

#4398 is now Melissa Grace Wellman.

This should change weekly, if I’m doing my job.

It didn’t change this week. I’m doing my job, just doing something different.

 

 

Click on the photos to enlarge.

I apologize for the reflection, but as you can see, this family Bible is very old and fragile and must be kept under glass. This is the Stieff family Bible. Some of us descend from the Stieff/Steeves family, who emigrated from Germany to the US and then to Atlantic Canada in the 1700s. They brought with them, on two perilous journeys, an old clock and their Bible. The Bible is the property of the New Brunswick archives, and is displayed in the Moncton Museum in Resurgo Place.

I had a wonderful visit this week with four of my genealogical society peers and Mike Proctor, a professional genealogist from Massachusetts and now North Carolina, on Thursday. Catherine and I took him to Resurgo Place and The Free Meeting House; then on to Settlers Landing and a walk along the trail by the Petitcodiac River; lunch at Classic Burger where I was covered with a ketchup mustard melange; then an afternoon visit in the Heritage Room at the Moncton Public Library where Thelma, Sherrill and Debbie joined us. There was not an idle moment – we talked a blue streak. You don’t need to remember those names as they are not related except for waaaaaay back to those German settlers. Mike shares DNA with at least Debbie and I. I am trying to write a brief recap of our visit for the next issue of “News and Notes.” As you know, “brief” does not come easily to me.

Left to right: Thelma, Debbie, Sherrill, Catherine, Mike, and Peg.

~

“. . . his calling [was] one of the most highly respected colonial occupations.

Besides this, he was probably the head of the iron-ware establishment of the period.

The Holmes’ of America may be proud of their Norwalk kinsman.

He was a brother of the Stamford and Bedford families . . .”

Saturday evening, on a Thanksgiving weekend. Playing Mah-jong on my tablet. “Enough of that nonsense,” I said to myself. Turned off the game and clicked on Ancestry. I have completed the article on Israel Smith and his wife, Deborah Holmes Smith. It has been released to the reading public in “News and Notes,” and is scheduled for the winter issue of “Generations.” The article about John Holmes and his wife, Marcy Bell Holmes Hait Ferris Barnum, is almost ready for the editor of “News and Notes.” It is time to choose another will. I really want to stick to people who appear in our family tree, as that way I can include or adapt the articles for “Colossal Collection of Cousins.” “Whom shall I choose?” I asked myself. After seeking for a good while, I chose the will, inventory, probate and complications of many times grand Uncle Richard Holmes, son of Francis, our immigrant ancestor. Perhaps I bit off more than I can chew.

 Oh my. It goes on and on and on. He was wordy enough in his will, but then his executor died and it had to go to the Prerogative Court in order to find new administrators. Then, one of the appointed administrators died. Plus, I have a hunch that it was contested and had to be found legitimate.

The first paragraph of an old will done in Fairfield County, CT, was generally thanks to God, whose name was not often capitalized; a description of their physical and mental state – physically usually being poorly and mental always being perfect; and their wish to have a decent burial. I’m sure there must have been a template to use as a guide and dress it up as they saw fit.

Here’s my start: the first paragraph. It is my initial attempt, with one revision.

Norwalk October 31^t day in y^e year of o^er Lord 1704.

In the name of god amen know y^e y^t I Richard Holmes of Norwalk being by y^e Good hand of god arrived at y^e (hell) of my old age of sixty years & upwards & now being under y^e afflicting hand of god at present and being sensable of my mutability and mortallity y^t may overtake me god only knows therefore & for good Consideration ____thereunto while (yet) I have through gods favour the use of my Right ____ & of my perfect memory I do see Cause and good reason to make my will to y^e End I may dispose of my worldly Estate before death so as may be to gods glory and my own peace and y^e Comfort of those y^t I shall leave behind: therefore this I declare to be my last will and Testament as followeth

 Imp^r I freely give and bequeath my poor Immortall Soul into y^e hand of my great and Good God that Gave it to y^e armes of my great redeemer (y^t to deerly) brought it and my own poor and Crazy body to y^e dust from whence it Came by a Comly and decent buriall and as for my worldly Estate I dispose of as followeth y^t which god hath Given me as follows . . .

____ means I haven’t figure it out yet. (is my best guess so far).

Monday morning: I have finished my first rough draft transcription of the Last Will and Testament of Richard Holmes, late of Norwalk. Phew. I won’t include it all here this week, as I need to print it off and mark it with my red pen as I compare it to the original. I need to go to an old book, “Norwalk,” by Rev. Charles M Selleck, AM, published by himself in 1896, to make sure I have the places that he mentioned deciphered correctly.

Tuesday morning: Uncle Richard is growing on me, although I have one bone to pick with him. He seems to me to be a blend of Puritan piety and a “tellin’ it as I sees it” kind of man. What ailed him? I wonder. “My own poor and Crazy body.” “Under the afflicting hand of god (sic).” And, “the hell of my old age.” He died when he was younger than me.

I am working on the “heall” word. I used both the Ancestry and the Familysearch copy. It looks like “heel” in FS (first picture), but “heall” with the “a” blotted out in Ancestry (second picture). Did you ever hear the expression “the hell of my old age?” Google doesn’t come up with much. I cannot figure out what other word it would be – so I am going with Ancestry’s “heall.”

I cannot copy and paste these pictures into the blog – it won’t allow me. If you want to see them, ask, and I will email you a copy of this week’s chronicle.

What is available in these two sources may be original or may be transcriptions, and I’m not sure which one would be a transcription if only one of them is. But, when I saw the inventory at Ancestry, which I’m positive is a transcription, I loved the calligraphy. It also gives the total, which the Familysearch copy doesn’t. Isn’t it lovely!

 I’ll be busy doing other things for the next week or two, so there won’t be a chronicle next week, and if there’s none the week after that, worry pas, I will be back.

 

 

Yt Gallon of Rum

 

Uncle Peg’s Chronicles

October 6, 2022

“Y^t Gallen of Rum”

Number of pages in Outline Descendant Report: 121 (up from 120 last chronicle)

Number of pages in basic Descendant Report: 181 (up from 177 last chronicle)

 

Francis Holmes is # 1. I am now # 286. # 285, where I was last week, is now Margaret Rose Holmes.

Matthew Williams, Jane William’s grandson, is last at # 402, up from # 398, and his son is # ii.

#398 is now Melissa Grace Wellman.

This should change weekly, if I’m doing my job.

 

It has been a crazy couple of weeks and phew, today, September 29^th, I must start my cleanup and figure out where I left off in my genealogy, research, and writing. My brother and sister, Paul and Pat, came up for a visit and we had a wonderful catchup time and accomplished some things that needed to be done. Fiona visited as well. Although she was not too cruel to us, only taking out one big branch of a tree and it not falling on anything of any importance, she did leave a mess which, between the four of us, we managed to bring into the house. Pine needles everywhere!

I wonder how you fared through Fiona and Ian’s nastiness. Do tell. I know Grace Holmes has a little house in Florida and it was damaged. I’m not sure how they will deal with that whilst in Maine; maybe an unexpected trip is in the offing.

I have the “now you know the rest of the story” of John and Marcy written and now I am working on revision and cutting out unnecessary works, phrases, and sentences. Every word must contribute something to the article. It’s difficult to cut, as some of those words mean something and I hate to let them go. But, I must. I have one document that needs some words that still elude me.

~

The Rest of the John Holmes Story

 That concludes the legal paperwork. Briefly, here is the rest of the story. By the time young John reached the age of seven, he had three siblings – Hannah, Susanna, and Samuel Hait. Another sister, Mercy, would arrive the following year. John’s step-father, Samuel Hait, died on December 9, 1711. Poor Marcy was left to administer another intestate estate, which mentions her four children – Samuel by name and three unidentified daughters.

 Before Samuel died, he built what is now known as the Hoyt-Barnum House in Stamford. This is the oldest house still standing in Stamford. It was removed to a new location in 2017, repaired and restored, given a renewed status as a heritage location, and is now used as a museum.

 Marcy married Peter Ferris on June 15, 1716. She and Peter had a daughter, Mary, and a son, Peter, who died in infancy. Perhaps there was another son, Jonathan, as a Jonathan Ferris was mentioned in the abstract of Marcy’s probate records. Peter died on January 2, 1737.

Marcy married Dr. Richard Barnum after Peter’s death, and I have found very little information about him. I believe he outlived her.

As the documents have shown, dying intestate made life complicated for John’s widow, Marcy. However, John’s death was a good excuse for Stamford residents to throw a Puritan party. Recorded in the records, seven months after the event and available for us to read some three hundred years later:

Huntington concurs: “No doubt due to the manner of his death, the funeral service for Mr. Holmes appears to have been a public function, for at a town meeting held in Stamford 16 December 1703, ‘Voate is given y^t gallen of rum for John Homes funarall’[1] be paid for by the town.”[2]

~

Before a deluge of genealogy duties landed on my platter this week, I did a wee bit of Moore research. When Paul and Pat were here, we went through my Grandfather Moore’s scrapbooks and one article stood out to Paul – the story of Walter “Gus” Kyle and his wife, Doris. Doris is our first cousin once removed. Paul was intrigued – knew who he was right away. I told him we were related by marriage. After they left, I pulled out the article to see if I could glean any vital stats from it and a mystery fell into my lap. There was another woman. But. . . no divorces. (That’s common – not many divorce records are on line.) And, there was a baby. Three years after the baby arrived, he married the other woman. Funny thing was, newspapers.com listed his wife as the former wife, Doris, in his obituary. As I don’t have a subscription, I emailed Ann Marie to see if she could find it for me. She did. How odd. I dug further into the scrapbook and found a letter from Gus’s wife to my father. In it, she told me of the death of her sister, but the letter concluded with this paragraph, and the answer to my mystery about a hockey player of my brother’s era. Paul collected hockey cards and I used to have to ask him random questions from his cards – a precursor to my daughter and her love of Pokemon cards.

 

"Walter and I are back together after all these years and thank God I had him as I don't know what I am going to do without Marge [her sister] as we were very close and talked frequently on the phone. I retired the end of April and am enjoying it very much. Walter is semi-retired but still sells some insurance and I help him in the office which he moved back into the house when he came, so it keeps me busy and I haven't missed working too much - not the work but I do miss the people. We have been doing a lot of golfing which we both enjoy and are planning on a trip in January to Bixoli, Miss. to golf and get away for a little while."

 

~

Now, what else have I been up to.

 I’ve been planning a visit with a professional genealogist, Mike Proctor, from North Carolina, who will be here in Moncton for two days only. He is a distant cousin on my Colpitts side – we know that thanks to DNA. On Thursday, five ladies from the society will give him a tour. His focus is the Steeves family. So, in addition to making the plans, I’ve been madly updating the Steeveses in our tree – both Alfred and Caroline (Holmes) Steeves and their descendants and my grandmother’s two Steeves grandmothers. As I recall from a Zoom meeting with Mike in May, I believe his compilation will not include living individuals. I will only be passing along those who are deceased. The plans I am making involve a visit to Resurgo Place, specifically the museum and archives, as well as the Free Meeting House and the Pioneer Cemetery. After lunch, we will head to the library where we can sit and chat in the Heritage Room.

 Also, I’m making the plans for the Annual General Meeting of NBGS in May. That involves, besides being in contact with the proprietor of Lady Smith Manor, a lot of motions and seconds and motions carried, both with my smaller group and the directors of the parent group.  Phew . . . I thought reunion planning was tough but this takes the cake. And, I haven’t even started looking for a caterer yet.

 I’m writing articles for both our News and Notes newsletter and Generations. They overlap; I’m just plumping up the Generations article. But it needs to be done now. Yesterday would be better. Tomorrow will be okay . . . Thankfully that will be a story for CCC.

 I have hurriedly updated my tree to include descendants back to Heinrich and Regina Stieff for Charles Alfred Steeves and Minnie Beatrice Colpitts and printed them off.

 And that’s all I have time for this week, folks.

Photos are from a 2016 skit at Settlers Landing - the arrival of the seven families on the sloop Lovey, ready to own their own piece of land in New Brunswick. I have a hunch that they weren't dressed quite that nicely after their sea journey from Pennsylvania. 

 

---

[1] Familysearch. Stamford Town Records. Image 342, page 367.

[2] Huntington, Rev. E B. History of Stamford, Connecticut, from its Settlement in 1641 to the Present Time. Page 126.